Texan with S.A. ties helped create Christmas ‘Community’

When you’re watching the special Christmas episode of “Community” tonight, lift a glass to a Texan with San Antonio ties who helped create it.

El Paso native and University of Texas graduate James Fino, who was behind the animation of the recent San Antonio Library campaign, “Born to Read,” along with an S.A. set episode of “King of the Hill,” is one of the talents behind this stop-action animation episode. It airs at 7 tonight on NBC.

He and partner Joe Russo of L.A.-based 23D Films, worked with “Community” creator Dan Harmon on getting the look of the series’ characters and the sets just right. An inspiration was the stop-action animation of Rankin-Bass of holiday tales, “The Year Without A Santa Claus” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” as well as movies such as “Coraline” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

The storyline: When Abed (Danny Pudi) wakes up in stop-motion animation, he believes it’s a sign that he and his study group must go on a quest to find the true meaning of Christmas. Meanwhile, Jeff (Joel McHale) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) become worried that Abed was going off the deep end and enlist the help of Professor Duncan (John Oliver). Abed’s friends undergo hypnosis to explore the winter wonderland of Abed’s mind and help bring him back to the real world. Chevy Chase, Yvette Nicole Brown, Donald Glover, and Ken Jeong also star.

What was the biggest challenge of this project? In a phone chat, Fino and Russo indicated they had to follow a strict set of guidelines so these characters would be immediately recognizable to viewers.

On top of that, some special tweaking needed to be made: During the show, Jeff turns into a jack-in-the-box; Pierce (Chase) turns into a bear and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) turns into a baby, so their proportions had to change as well. That wasn’t easy to accomplish, Fino said.

“Once the character designs were approved,” he added, the two were able to turn their attention to the sets and make sure they also were reproduced in line with the specific world of “Community.”

Another problem was the tight time frame; they barely got the finalized product delivered this week, Fino said.

Both animation execs are proud of the results, but didn’t want to take all the credit. So, why not click here and take in the entire creative team.